“Really, Really Like Me” - A children's book about accepting disabilities

Written by Gretchen Leary and illustrated by Dani Bowman, “Really, Really Like Me” is an interactive children's book that helps children to understand the differences and promote a healthy interaction between children with and without disabilities.

 Maybe with this book, children can start teaching adults on how to deal with differences and not to be afraid of them.
Afterall, if it weren't the differences between men and women, you wouldn't be reading this.

 Both Gretchen Leary and Dani (Danielle) Bowman are on the autism spectrum.

ColorADD available for iPhone and iPad

 Created by Miguel Neiva, ColorADD® COLOR IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM FOR COLOR BLIND PEOPLE, is an intuitive and inclusive tool that adds to the concept of colour through the addition of a system of symbols.

 Based on a monochromatic system language, the colorADD code allows a  fast and easy colour identification by colour blind people, as well as unique, inclusive, universal and transversal.

 Programmed by Rui Seica, ColorADD® is now available for iPhone and iPad, with versions for Android and Windows Mobile following soon.

 After downloading the app, which has a price of only €0,89, the user only needs to point the camera to the surface and its colour will be imediately identified on the screen, with a caption containing the colour's name and its symbol.

 With a double touch on the screen, the user can freeze the image and slide a chromatic ring to a specific area, allowing a more precise result if needed. The results can be automatically shared on social networks.
It's also possible to analize the images saved on the mobile device.

 ColorADD has numberless applications, including in the industry, education and healthcare. Several official institutions and private owned companies, have already adapted it.

 Teacher-librarian Sílvio Maltez is the author on an ebook (only in Portuguese) about how the ColorADD system works. The preface is by Miguel Neiva.

Sustaining / Creating - Call for emerging artists with disabilities

Submissions for the national juried exhibition Sustaining / Creating, are open to emerging artists aged 16–25, living in the United States, and carrying a disability. Previous award recipients are not eligible to apply.

Participating artists are invited to submit works - all work must have a visual component, independently of the chosen medium - that portray innovative viewpoints on sustainability and contemporary creativity, such as expressing notions of responsibility and interaction between humans and the natural world, not only from a scientific perspective, but also encompassing cultural aspects that can contribute to that sustainability.

Submitted artwork should illustrate these thematic ideas, which may be achieved through broad, abstracted references or detailed personal creations. The artwork might also reflect the artist's experience of living with a disability and its role in shaping or transforming his/her art.

Entrants should read the particular submission rules carefully and refer to the general submission rules page, namely on how to submit the images of the artwork and to check if any submission fees apply.

Fifteen artists will be selected for the exhibition and will share $60,000 in cash awards: a $20,000 grand prize, a $10,000 first award, a $6,000 second award, and 12 awards of excellence of $2,000 each.
The exhibition will take place at the Smithsonian Institution’s S. Dillon Ripley Center in Washington, D.C., from September 2012 to January 2013 and may travel nationally to additional venues. Awardees will be honoured at an opening reception on Capitol Hill.
 
Sustaining / Creating  is presented by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ VSA & Accessibility Office and Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.

The event organizer can be contacted at scendak@kennedy-center.org.

How Art Can Help People With Disabilities

Proclaimed in 1992, the annual observance of the International Day of Disabled Persons takes place on the 3rd of Decemmber.
The theme for 2011 is “Together for a better world for all:
Including persons with disabilities in development.”

We live in a society where laws and benefits fall far behind the needs of disable people and their families, and in many countries those laws are constantly disrespected without any sanction. Moreover there's a gap in terms of educating people in their relation with each other, especially between the so-called normal and those with disabilities - People with disabilities make up an estimated 15 per cent of the world’s population. Almost one-fifth of the estimated global total of people living with disabilities, or between 110-190 million, encounter significant difficulties. Furthermore, a quarter of the global population is directly affected by disability, as care-givers or family members.

One of the most successful methods of providing disabled people with personal development and social integration is through the arts, especially in the case of children.
Art enables dexterity development, a better perception of space (including negative space and relation), colour, form and many other things. It is also a great opportunity to end individual isolation, as art projects can be completed in group.
Several resources for those working with special needs students in the arts, can be found online or by contacting official and private institutions.

Several art projects for children can be found at Julie Voigt's blog Art for Small Hands.